Still Rocking: Decades after the band ceased, Birmingham's Primitons has released its collected works.

MANY BIRMINGHAM MUSIC FANS of the mid - to late- ’8os still remember the rock band Primitons fondly, and now they’ve got a remastered, reissued collection to behold. “Don’t Go Away: Collected Works” features 18 tracks, plus a download code for an additional 11 songs. Mats Roden, Primitons’ lead singer and co-songwriter, spoke to Birmingham magazine from his Southside apartment.

Birmingham magazine: What have recent years held for you?Mats Roden: Actually [vocational] rehab gave me a grant to do another record of songs. I was in a band called Sugar La-La’s, so I’m going to try to do those. I wrote a bunch of songs that nobody has heard … I just want to surprise everybody. I’m working with pretty much the rhythm section of Sugar La-La’s, and also the drummer from Primitons. … I asked my counselor, I thought this was a long-shot because I had never thought they would go for this, but I said, I would love to do a record of all the songs that the Sugar La-La’s didn’t get to. … Voc rehab has been so good to me. I live for my studio days every week.

BHAM: How much time do you spend there each week?MR: I only have a couple days. I’m working at Capture Music with Mike Creager. We usually do Mondays, and I get to come in on Wednesday afternoons.

BHAM: Are you recording new material or producing previously recorded work?MR: Both. I have actually 20-plus songs that have not been recorded. They have been recorded, but they’re demos. … I think we’re going to hopefully do five songs, redo five songs of the Sugar La-La’s period. Then, like I said, I have a lot of songs that we’re going to have to pare down and then get about 12 songs to go on the record. Right now we’re working on six songs. It’s really, really fun for me. I love the studio. That’s where I feel most comfortable. I really quit performing live in probably ’95, maybe, and just concentrated on writing and recording with Daniel Farris, then working with Mike Creager, who is a really, really good engineer and also a very good musician. That helps a lot because he comes up with parts that he hears.

BHAM: Why this “collected works” album, and why now?MR: It’s really an act of love by [former Birmingham resident and Arena Rock Recording Company founder] Greg Glover. … He moved out of New York after 9/11, so he ended up in Portland. He released the Carnival Season. We had three records, and if you look in the [record], there’s a little slip where you can download stuff that has not been released.… Greg actually called us and asked us if we would like to be on Arena Rock records. It took a long time because he had to find the records, and he actually lifted songs off the vinyl. Then we all, unlike Carnival Season, we were worked in so many different studios. The master process was, we had to master the record two times before we were satisfied. Greg was so patient about that. That’s why it just came out.

BHAM: How long has this process been going on?MR: The Primitons have been going on three years, and getting the funding for this [voc rehab] project took three years also.

BHAM: What’s your timeline for the new project? MR: We’re hoping that we’re going to get all the recording done by September, but I don’t know about the mixing. That shouldn’t take long at all. What we’re going to do is get these six songs finished, then send them out as a teaser. Of course I’m going to send them to Greg first, to pique some interest from labels.